Streetcar funding on track to vote by council

By Vianna Davila :
January 8, 2013
: Updated: January 8, 2013 10:29pm

The City Council will decide Thursday whether to forgo $15 million in private-sector funds for VIA Metropolitan Transit's streetcar plan, though transit officials say they can make up for any budget shortfalls with state and federal sources.

The plan to remove the private-sector dollars from the city's overall $55 million share of the project has been under discussion for several months.

VIA's Interim President and CEO Jeff Arndt said the change, if approved, won't affect the timeline for streetcar's grand opening, expected in late 2016 or early 2017.

In fall 2011, the city voted to fund the streetcar system but only if VIA built a streetcar line that went north and east through downtown.

The VIA board previously had voted to construct a line that went west to east; VIA and Bexar County had agreed to fund that version of the plan.

Most of the city's contribution, about $40 million, would come from the general fund and savings from a 2007 bond.

The remaining $15 million was to come from private property owners, who would have paid a tax through the creation of what's called a public improvement district.

A PID already exists downtown; city officials were to decide whether to expand it or create a new one just for streetcars.

But in recent months, support for the public improvement district disappeared — mainly because Bexar County and VIA later came up with more money to fund an additional west-south streetcar line after the city took its vote, City Manager Sheryl Sculley said.

The addition of the west-south line confused property owners about whose responsibility it was to fund the project, Sculley said.

Also, VIA has not determined exactly where the streetcar routes will go, leaving open the question of which properties should be taxed. A decision on the routes could come next summer.

The lackluster support for the PID prompted the city's decision to vote on removing it from the funding plan. The council's previous vote must be amended or else the remaining $40 million for streetcar can't be spent.

“If it was a big, major piece of the funding, I'd be worried,” he said, “but it's a very small part.”

He added that VIA can use $10 million in state highway department dollars, money originally slated for another transit project, for streetcars.

VIA also received a $15 million federal transit grant in late 2011 for its West Side Multimodal Transit Center, on North Medina Street. Money that VIA had set aside for the center now can go to streetcars, Arndt said.

The streetcar project continues to move forward. Now, instead of just city and county support, he said, the project will draw on federal and state dollars, too.

“Five partners on this first project is a pretty good sign of local cooperation and regional thinking,” Arndt said.